Gaming machines currently exist with bonus schemes in which the player has one or more opportunities to choose a particular selection or indicator from a group of indicators. An indicator may be any symbol or image such as a number, letter or graphical representation of a person, place or thing. When a player chooses an indicator, the game will either award the player with a bonus value or terminate the bonus round. The outcome depends upon the particular indicator selected by the player.
When the player selects an indicator which awards a bonus value, the player receives one or more bonus values, and the player has another chance to select another indicator. Each time the player selects such a success indicator, the game typically provides an award to the player and displays a message for the player such as “NEXT.” This message means that the bonus round continues and the player may choose another indicator. The player then selects another indicator, and this process continues until the player selects an indicator which terminates the bonus round. When the player selects such a failure indicator, typically the game displays a message for the player such as “COLLECT.” This message means that the bonus round has terminated, and the player collects any bonus values the player accumulated.
Gaming machines with this type of bonus scheme are programmed so that in each bonus round certain indicators or a certain number or percentage of indicators are success indicators and certain indicators or a certain number or percentage of indicators are failure indicators. Consequently, the percentage of success indicators is predetermined and fixed. Therefore, when playing a bonus round, it is impossible for the player to select success indicators beyond the fixed percentage. Chance is involved in the timing as to when the player chooses a failure indicator—before or after achieving the fixed percentage of success indicators. European Patent Application No. EP 0 945 837 A2 filed on Mar. 18, 1999 and assigned on its face to WMS Gaming, Inc. discloses a bonus scheme generally of this type.